


Ex Libris

by Ael_tRlailiiu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 03:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7205810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ael_tRlailiiu/pseuds/Ael_tRlailiiu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the eve of departure, Liam Jones looks for a gift for his brother. </p>
<p>A short Jones Brothers birthday fic for scapeartist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ex Libris

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scapeartist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scapeartist/gifts).



The sign over the door read Melete, which he thought a curious name for a bookshop. The bell tinkled in a genteel, understated fashion, echoed by a brassy clang elsewhere in the building. Captain Liam Jones, the glow still on his epaulets, closed the door and hesitated. The unknown held no terrors for him, but on this particular occasion he would have liked a map, and he gravitated at once to the beautiful samples on display.

Skilled and loving hands had traced the outlines of coasts known and unknown and dotted them all with monsters. Soon his own ship would be among them, hunting the enemies of the crown across the open sea.

_“But where are we going, Papa? It’s already dark.”_

_“We’re going to see the world, lads! All the lands on all the maps and off the edges. It’s going to be a grand adventure, just like the heroes of ancient times. Now get your things, we must be gone before sunrise.”_

Liam spanned his fingers across whirlpools and mermaids and dragon-haunted islands and found his own hand stranger than the creatures of the map. The new-stitched edge of his blue uniform jacket hung crisp and precise, gold buttons burnished to a shine, skin no longer rough and dirty.

A door opened at the back of the shop, and the distant thump of a press grew louder. A woman emerged and said, “Good afternoon, sir. Can I help you?”

“Uh… I hope so.” For some reason Liam had expected an elderly gentleman or lady, not a smiling young woman with her sleeves rolled up, even if she did wear spectacles. “I’m looking for a book. I hope I’m in the right place,” he added with an awkward smile and a wave at the surrounding tables.

“That you are. Are you looking for something for yourself, or for someone else?” She wiped her ink-stained hands on a towel that hung at her waist.

“My brother.”

When he didn’t go on, she prodded further, “What’s the occasion? Does he like to read? What sort of thing? We have a wide assortment here.”

“It’s a… bit of a going-away present. He does, but I’m not really sure….” Liam made a hopeless gesture and pulled himself together. “I’m shipping out in the morning.”

“I see.” She nodded. “Congratulations appear to be in order then, Captain.”

He managed not to say is it that obvious and instead said, “Thank you. The problem, you see, is that Killian reads rather a lot, and I’m at a loss to find something that would be new, and… and I would like to,” he finished. “Er. Something to remember me by, if necessary, to be honest.”

“Let’s hope for something more optimistic, shall we?” The printer surveyed her wares. “Something for yourself as well, perhaps? I understand the watches can be long at sea.”

_“You should be sleeping, Killian. They’ll wake us early.”_

_“Just a few more minutes. I need to….”_

_Need to what, Liam didn’t ask. The lantern smoked and reeked. His eyes ached; he closed them and listened to the turning pages._

_“What’s in…dom..itable?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_The whisper of paper soothed him, like feathers rustling, a few minutes’ desperate flight in the dark._

“They can, indeed.” Liam gave her a rueful smile. “I taught him, but I’m not much of a reader myself.” Something to fill the empty days after their mother died, to distract them both from the suddenly-irregular appearance of firewood and meals. Something to fix on after Brennan left, a star of hope by which to navigate to a better future.

He caught himself mid-memory and went on, “More utility than pleasure in it for me, I’m afraid. Killian’s the one of us who has a way with words. He’s soaked in a library’s worth of ink in the past year alone, I’d say, and not all of it practical business.”

She smiled and plucked a book from a stack. “It’s wonderful to see, isn’t it? When someone finds something they’ve been missing so much, and perhaps didn’t even know it. Try this one.”

Liam looked at it dubiously. “Well, he almost certainly hasn’t read it. I don’t know.”

“Heroism.” She placed a theatrical hand to her breast. “Perseverance in the face of the gods themselves. Poetry.”

“Poetry?”

“Trust me. I have a lot of practice at this. There is more use in poetry than you might think, Captain, even on the high seas.”

_“What’s that one about?”_

_“Geometry. And I didn’t spend any of our few and precious funds, my impecunious brother, I assure you.”_

_“I’m what? Please tell me you didn’t steal it.”_

_“Penniless. That’s us.” He clapped the book closed. “And no, I didn’t. Found it discarded on a trash heap. Appropriately enough.”_

_It won’t be forever, Liam wanted to say, but sometimes the promise felt hollow to them both.  Better this than rum._

Liam blinked and said, “I’ll take it. Thank you.”

* *

“You shouldn’t have, you know, but… this is in Greek.” Killian gave him a perplexed look. Flags snapped in the breeze and booted feet thumped on wood as the last preparations went on aboard the ship. “Thank you?”

“It is, and you’re welcome.” Liam clapped him on the shoulder. “When I get back, you’ll have read the whole thing. I can hardly leave without giving my little brother chores to do in my absence, can I?”

Killian raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, brother.”

“Only my best, Killian.”

“I know. You’ll be a fine captain. This is what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it? A chance to prove yourself. I’ll see you when you return. Not that I’ll have a chance to, if you miss your tide, Captain Jones.” Killian gave the ship a look that was only a trifle wistful.

“Yours will be along soon, I’m sure. Perhaps we’ll take ship together again in the future.” He straightened his hat and prepared to embark.

“I’d like to see them try to stop us.” Killian stepped back and grinned at him. “Go on, then. I’ll be right behind you.”


End file.
